Match Summary

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University volleyball team was determined to get its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener off on the right foot Wednesday evening.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they played like they had two left feet, as Bethel cruised to a dominating 30-10 win in the opening game and never looked back in handing the Cardinals a 3-0 (30-10, 30-27, 30-28) setback at the SMU Gym.

"We did not play well, plain and simple," said SMU coach Mike Lester. "Bethel is a good team, but we made them look like world-beaters. It was one of those matches that we really wanted to play well in — it was our conference opener, in front of our home fans … . We just got off to a bad start and never recovered."

The Cardinals couldn't do anything right in the first game, losing 10 of the game's first 13 points and 20 of the first 23.

"I thought we rebounded pretty well from that first game — we put ourselves in position to win both the second and third games — but just like last weekend (at the SMU Sugar Loaf Classic), we weren't able to finish," said Lester, whose team dropped a pair of five-game matches in going 1-3 at their home tournament last weekend. "We are right there, we just can't get the job done down the stretch."

SMU battled back from a 20-15 deficit to pull within one, 27-26, in Game 2, only to have Bethel score three of the final four points for the win. And it was more of the same in Game 3, as the Cardinals fell behind early, clawed their way back to tie the game 28-28, then gave up the game's final two points to end the match.

"I thought when we served, we did a good job of scoring points, but when (Bethel) served, we weren't doing a good job of getting a side-out," Lester said. "We'd serve a point or two, but then Bethel would come back with runs of two, three, four points — we just weren't siding out."

Lisa Engdahl (North Branch, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinals, collecting a match-high 14 kills and 10 digs, while Desiree Larson (Blaine, Minn.) chipped in 15 digs and Megan Roesler (St. Paul, Minn.) collected four aces.

"It's a disappointing loss," admitted Lester, whose team returns to action next Wednesday, traveling to Macalester for a 7 p.m. match. "We've got to use this as another learning experience and go out and try to get better next time."